The song can be heard here:
http://usat.ly/1mV2VY5.
“Brothers of the Southland” is also the title track of BlackHawk’s new album, which arrives July 8
via Loud & Proud Records. Co-produced by the band
(guitarist/vocalist Henry Paul and keyboardist/vocalist Dave Robbins)
and Dale Oliver
(Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman), Brothers Of The Southland is BlackHawk’s first studio release in 12 years.
About
the single, Henry Paul says he set out to “pay respects to a collection
of people that were large in my life, like the Marshall Tucker Band and
Ronnie Van Zant. I talk about Ronnie’s ‘angel’s voice and devil’s
smile,’ contrasting the mischievous and highly
principled parts of his personality. And while I didn’t know Duane
Allman, we certainly grew up revering him and losing him and Barry
Oakley from the Allman Brothers was tragic. The song pulls from my
childhood, too, with Southern imagery like gospel tents.”
The song “really
embodies Henry’s past with these other people,” says Dave Robbins.
“We’re not just paying homage to a genre of music or a geographical
topic. When Henry sings about the guys from Skynyrd, the
Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker Band, he’s talking about people
he worked with and grew up with."
Players on the track
include Lynyrd Skynyrd’s original guitarist Ed King (the co-writer of
“Sweet Home Alabama”); Paul Riddle, the original drumer for the Marshall
Tucker Band; and original Outlaws drummer Monte
Yoho and current Outlaws guitarist Chris Anderson. Paul and Robbins
penned the tune with Survivor’s Jim Peterik, who has some experience
with anthems, having co-written “Eye of the Tiger," one of the
best-selling singles of all time.
The album also includes tribute to
BlackHawk’s own early-‘90s roots in the form of three unearthed
demos that Paul and Robbins recorded with the band's late co-founder,
Van Stephenson. "Heart With A View," Wide
Open Spaces," and "Baby, The Rain
Must Fall.” Robbins predicts that fans are “going to be ecstatic when
they hear three little jewels featuring Van singing with us. It’s the
three of us playing and singing live, with an
acoustic guitar, mandolin and a piano and not a bunch of edits. We're
so excited to be able to include Van's amazing voice on these songs. It
makes the album that much more special.”
Paul, Robbins and
Stephenson exploded onto the country music landscape in 1993 with their
self-titled album and top 10 hit single “Goodbye Says It All.” Three
more hit singles followed (“Every Once In A While,”
“I Sure Can Smell The Rain” and “That’s Just About Right”), propelling
the album to platinum status. They maintained that pace in the years
that followed, scoring a dozen top ten hits, including two number ones,
while selling more than seven million records.
Tragedy struck in 1999 when Van was diagnosed with melanoma, a deadly
form of skin cancer. After a long and courageous fight, Van tragically
lost his battle in 2001.
Making an artistic and commercial comeback wasn’t
the only motivation for firing up the band again. “Van’s dying requests
were ‘Keep BlackHawk going, because there’s a lot of great music left in
the band… and do what you can do to try and
help find a cure for cancer,” says Henry. To that end, he and Dave
founded the Van Stephenson Memorial Fund, which raises funds for
organizations like the Vanderbilt Women’s Cancer Research Center in
Nashville.
.
Over the years, BlackHawk’s songs have touched
people young and old and their unique musical character has been a
catalyst in bringing non-country music fans to the genre. Though they
haven’t recorded until now, BlackHawk has continued
to tour and play to packed-house audiences across the country. “Our
band was always different than many or most of the other groups in our
sort of category,” says Henry. “We had a little bit more of a pop
lyrical sensibility that brought a lot of people that
weren’t necessarily country music fans into the fold of BlackHawk
fans.”
That fresh attitude toward the making of their
music is certainly appreciated by the twentysomething-year-old fans
(affectionately dubbed “wingnuts”) who make up much of BlackHawk’s
improbably youthful audience. But it doesn’t matter which
demographic they fit into: BlackHawk fans aren’t sons, uncles, dads, or
nephews of the Southland, but in the end, as the title says, brothers.
For tour dates, please visit blackhawklive.com
About Loud & Proud Records
Loud & Proud Records is an independent
record label founded in 2007 by Tom Lipsky whose mission is to provide a
true and transparent partnership between artists and their record
label. Labels
under Lipsky's direction in the past (CMC International, Sanctuary
Records Group) have been among the market leaders in the veteran artist
space with releases by Neil Young, Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS, Robert Plant,
Morrissey, Earth Wind & Fire, The Allman Brothers
Band, Widespread Panic, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Bad Company and more.
In a previous joint-venture with Roadrunner Records, Loud & Proud
was responsible for new albums by Rush, Lenny Kravitz, Rob Zombie,
Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and The Steve
Miller Band. Loud & Proud’s current roster includes five-time Emmy
Award winning actor and musician Jonathan Jackson and his band Enation,
supergroup rock band The Winery Dogs, renowned jam band The String
Cheese Incident, multi-platinum country artists BlackHawk,
Seattle’s alternative Walking Papers, critically-acclaimed
singer/songwriter Willie Nile, powerhouse rockers KIX and the classic
Starship featuring Mickey Thomas. Loud & Proud Records is a registered trademark of Lipsky Music, LLC, and is
distributed in the U.S. and Canada by RED and in the rest of the world by earMUSIC/Edel AG.
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